


Pacific Grim

by scheherezhad



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-04-13 13:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4523586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scheherezhad/pseuds/scheherezhad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of blurbs about the reapers as Jaeger pilots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I did this series on my tumblr but never got around to putting it up here, and since I'm not producing anything at the moment, I figured I might as well get this posted.

Grell is torn, the first time they drift. She wants desperately to go back into the field, but she wants her old partner. This new lad they’ve brought her, this Ronald, is young and bright and not Will.

 

Will’s mind in hers had always made her feel complete, a perfect match to all her jagged edges. She has a whole set of complicated metaphors about him being the ice to her fire, but she doesn’t bother with them anymore because he never listens. In a way, this would all be easier if he had actually died when they fought Ravenwing, rather than surviving his injuries; instead, he simply (horrifically, excruciatingly) refuses to drift with her again.

(She tries not to think about Angelina, beautiful Ann who was perfectly drift compatible with her, who should have been her one and only partner. Angelina who had chased the rabbit and drowned her mind in red and didn’t come back the same.)

Eric had filled in the empty spaces like a slow trickle of whisky. They worked well together, but she had given him up to Alan when they proved a stronger match. After all, she knows first-hand what it feels like to be torn away from a perfect drift.

Ronald seeps in like sunshine, lighting up her dark corners. He warms her up in spite of herself. Even as they slip through each other’s memories, she can feel his curiosity at the badly patched hole where Will belongs, but he doesn’t pry.

Before she knows it, their connection is solid, and she can feel how much he loves Red Juliet already. He is surprisingly vicious underneath the puppyish grin, ready to tear kaiju apart with Grell and give the creatures a taste of Red Juliet’s weapon, the grand blade Grell affectionately named the Death Scythe.

They come back down from the test run full of adrenaline and exhilaration. She falls into his arms with a wild laugh, heart bursting with the joy of finding a kindred spirit. He’s as good as her brother now, and they’ll have their chance on the world stage soon enough, cutting a swathe of crimson through kaiju blue.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for archadianskies.

The first time they take down a kaiju together (Toto-kakī, intercepted off the coast of Auckland), Ronald expects to want to party all night in celebration. He always thought his first victory would end with drinking and dancing and pretty girls hanging on his every word as he recounted the battle. What it really is is _toomuch tooloud toocrowded_ while trying to navigate the world with half his body missing. He’s off-balance from the moment he stumbles out of his harness until Grell grabs his hand in the drive room and drags him to her quarters.

She strips out of the tee and sweatpants she put on after taking off her drivesuit, yanks him out of his own clothes, and shoves him down on the bed. He thinks for a moment that they’re going to fuck, but Grell draws the blanket over them and just…cuddles.

(She and Will used to make love after they came back, riding the ghost drift and the high of being in love. It tears her apart every time she looks at him now and gets nothing back but cold dismissal.)

They lie there in their dark cocoon for a long time, skin to skin, not saying a word. It’s exactly what Ronald needed and didn’t know he wanted. His adrenaline-shaky fingers card through her hair and stroke over her shoulders and back until her muscles unclench.

Through the fading remnants of the drift, he keeps catching fragments of Grell’s memories from previous battles. She and Will had taken down five before the one that almost killed him and left Grell angry and aching and lonely. Ronald knows, now, exactly what Will looks like when he tempers Grell’s bloodlust with cool, calculated efficiency; the way his eyes glint and the tiny quirk of his lips when he takes his helmet off after a successful run; the horror of seeing his body hanging limp in the harness while a kaiju reaches out to deal another blow to their broken Jaeger.

(It’s not enough to make up for all the times Will turns away, the criticisms, the refusals to spend time with her, the knowledge that they’ll never drift again.)

Ronald tries to dredge up good things from his own mind to pull Grell back out to a place where she can breathe. He thinks of playing stupid drinking games at the Academy, of spending lazy summers in the English countryside with his Gran, of trying over and over to learn to ice skate to impress a girl in gradeschool.

Grell finally stirs, and Ronald pushes back the blanket. The clock says they’ve not even been here for an hour yet, but it feels like much longer. Grell piles her hair into a messy bun, and they get dressed again to go down to the mess. It’s part of their job as heroes to join the celebrations and accept the thanks and congratulations from the Dome’s crew, after all.

He doesn’t miss the look Will gives them when they come in looking rumpled and mirroring each other’s movements, and he makes sure Grell doesn’t see the mean little smile he gives in return.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A birthday present to archadianskies.

The battle with Ravenwing had done a great deal of damage to Red Juliet, and by extension, to Grell and William. He had taken the brunt of the blows, and he had barely been alive by the end of it. Then, with Red Juliet falling to pieces around them, a power surge had overloaded his spinal clamp. The medical staff had later proclaimed it incredible that he had survived, and an outright miracle that he was still functional. He would even be able to drift again.

In time, he had recovered from the broken bones, the internal bleeding, the bruises and lacerations. Physically, there were no complications. It was the psychological damage that had been the end of his career in a Jaeger.

Every time William imagined putting on a drivesuit again, every time he thought about stepping into the cockpit, initiating the neural handshake… They told him he had had a panic attack after the first time he ended up on the floor, shaking and vomiting. After the fourth time–-only the second that anyone else knew about–-he resigned as a ranger.

(The lost look on Grell’s face when she had confronted him about it haunted him. William could not explain to her the way the Pons felt like a death trap, now, how his drivesuit felt like being buried alive. When she pleaded with him to let her help him, he pushed her away with harsh words and an icy gaze. She could not afford for him to have any warmth left for her. Better she hate him now and still be a ranger than to let her grow to resent him for taking her away from the job she loved more than anything.)

It was only by the intervention of Marshall Anderson that William had not left the program entirely. The Marshall had recommended him for a desk job under the notion that the rare specimen of a living former ranger could provide valuable insights into improving the shatterdome’s operations.

William knew his success with Grell was a fluke, some cruel twist of fate, an attraction of opposites that would not be replicated. He used his new position to search out his potential replacement from ranger candidates who were more like her: charismatic, volatile, deadly. He had no direct influence over making selections, but Personnel were open to his suggestions.

He found Eric Slingby first. He excelled in simulations-–35 drops, 35 kills when William looked at his scores. Cocky in person, but with the skills to back it up.

Eric and Grell synced quickly and got on like a house on fire, but William had not counted on Alan Humphries. Alan, who was not meant to be a pilot but a clerk, until a bored scientist had put him through the simulator. His resolution of the simulation was textbook, and the algorithms had shown his outstanding potential for compatibility with Eric Slingby. Everyone knew it was the right match two weeks later when they drifted together, and suddenly Alan was being rushed through training and Grell needed a new partner again.

It took a while to find the next one, but Angelina Dalles perfectly matched William’s criteria. Her first spar with Grell went well. A bit sloppy in the beginning, perhaps-–Angelina seemed almost scared of Grell’s intensity–-but they evened out. The next three were less stable. The first drift… did not succeed. Angelina got lost in her own head, chased the rabbit, and didn’t stop sobbing when they pulled her out.

William would never forget the devastation on Grell’s face afterward.

He took more care the next time. He needed to do better, need perfect drift compatibility and someone who wouldn’t bend under the force of Grell’s personality. He needed someone who would not leave her.

It was a long search, and he had nearly given up when he found Ronald Knox. He was young, much younger than the last two, but one of the top students in his class at the Academy. Solid practical skills, good at following orders, clean psychological profile. The matching algorithms placed him at 98% compatibility with Grell Sutcliff.

A month later, William watched the feed of their first test run. He clamped down hard on the throb in his chest when they powered down and Grell threw herself into Ronald’s arms.

A month after that, he emptied his stomach when he heard that Red Juliet had been sent to intercept a kaiju, and he stayed sat on the bathroom floor until the victory cries rang out. When he finally made his way down to the mess–-just for a moment, just to assure himself she had come back whole and healthy-–he accidentally caught Ronald’s eye.

The dangerous smirk he received told him all he needed to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe the last part? I never had an actual plot in mind for this thing, it was just an idea I had to write. In any case, I am marking it complete for the time being.


End file.
